About SAT Chemistry

The SAT Subject test in Chemistry is a popular choice among those who want to study chemistry or a related subject such as medicine, biomedical sciences or biochemistry at university. This does not mean that students who are intending to study a non-scientific discipline should be deterred; quite the contrary, such students ought to be encouraged to sit the SAT Subject test in Chemistry as it will generally buttress their applications. However, the majority of the test takers sitting the SAT Subject test in Chemistry examination will be heading for a related field at university and so it may come as no surprise that the competition for high grades is especially accentuated as reflected in the official percentiles.

The syllabus for the SAT Subject test in Chemistry can be found here. As the Collegeboard site explains the prospective student is expected to know and understand the basic principles and concepts of chemistry. In reality, you need to know quite a lot more and in considerably more detail if you wish to excel in the SAT Subject test in Chemistry. It is interesting to note that even with the available publications of SAT Subject test in Chemistry books there are discrepancies in the coverage of material and the emphasis placed on different areas.

In the SAT Subject test in Chemistry examination there are 85 questions that must be answered in 60 minutes: you need to be very fast, extremely focused, and know your material very well. Of the science based Subject Tests, Chemistry is generally deemed the most difficult as reflected in the Official Collegeboard SAT Subject Test percentiles which can be found here. Please note that you are not permitted the use of a calculator in the test to do calculations – this may slow down some test takers. Fortunately, you do not have to answer all the questions correctly to attain an 800 score – you can leave blanks and/or make a number of mistakes and still achieve the 800. Generally you will require a raw score of around 78/85 to attain the 800.

At the Tree Foundation Tutorial College we have tutors who have attained 800 scores in the SAT Subject test in Chemistry and who are currently professional and/or academic chemists. If you are interested in preparing for a top grade in the SAT Subject test in Chemistry then please contact us.